Japan's June domestic fuel oil sales rise by 2.5% year on year

31 July 2012 14:40[Source: ICIS news]

TOKYO (ICIS)--Japan’s total domestic sales of fuel oils rose by 2.5% year on year to 14.3m kilolitres in June, as many of the country’s nuclear power plants remain shut after the earthquake and tsunami of 11 March 2011, official data from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) showed on Tuesday.

Among the total, sales of Bunker B and Bunker C fuel oils, some of which is used for electricity, increased 44% to 2.09m kilolitres in June from the same period a year earlier, according to METI’s preliminary report on petroleum statistics.

Imports of Bunker B and Bunker C more than doubled year on year to 588,232 kilolitres, the data showed.

Domestic sales of naphtha, however, declined by 3.2% to 3.27m kilolitres in June from the same time the previous year, while imports fell by 6.8% to 2.07m kilolitres, according to the ministry.

Meanwhile, ?xml:namespace>Japan’s domestic shipments of crude oil rose by 58% year on year to 1.14m kilolitres in June, according to the statistics. Among the total, 1.12m kilolitres of crude oil was used for electricity, a 73% increase from June 2011.

The country imported 15.4m kilolitres of crude oil in June, a 6% increase from the year-before period, according to METI.

Imports of crude oil from Iran rose 6.8% year on year to 991,187 kilolitres in June, the data showed.